Pierre André Latreille

Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare beetle species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis. He entered the of Limoges in 1780, and left as a deacon in 1786. Despite being qualified to preach, Latreille later wrote that he had never carried out his functions as a minister, although for a few years he signed the letters he wrote "" ("the Reverend Latreille") or "" ("Latreille, Priest"). The beetle had been described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775, but recognising it had saved Latreille from likely demise, as all the other inmates were dead within one month. As Lamarck became blind, Latreille took on an increasing proportion of his teaching and research work. In 1821, Latreille was made a knight of the .

Later years

From 1824, Latreille's health deteriorated. He handed his lectures over to Jean Victoire Audouin and took on several assistants for his research work, including Amédée Louis Michel Lepeletier, Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville and Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville.

Commemoration The raised the money to pay for a monument to Latreille. This was erected over Latreille's grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery (39th division), and comprised a obelisk with various inscriptions, including one to the beetle which had saved Latreille's life: "" ("Necrobia ruficollis, Latreille's saviour"). A 3D model based on a micro-CT scan of the polychaete worm Lumbrineris latreilli, which is named after Latreille.

Lumbrineris latreilli Audouin & H. Milne-Edwards, 1833 Cecrops latreillii Leach, 1816 Apseudes latreillii (H. Milne-Edwards, 1828) Orbinia latreillii (Audouin & H. Milne-Edwards, 1833) Latreillia Roux, 1830 Cilicaea latreillei Leach, 1818 Bittium latreillii (Payraudeau, 1826) Macrophthalmus latreillei (Desmarest, 1822) Eurypodius latreillei Guérin, 1828 Sphex latreillei Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1831

Work

Latreille named the rough woodlouse Porcellio scaber in 1804, and also established the genus Porcellio (1804), the sub-order Oniscidea (1802), the order Isopoda (1817) and the class Malacostraca (1802). Latreille produced a significant body of scientific work, extending across several fields. He was described by Johan Christian Fabricius as ("the foremost entomologist of our time"), and by Jean Victoire Audouin as ("the prince of entomology"). His "eclectic method" of systematics incorporated evidence from all available characters without assuming a pre-defined goal; Latreille repeatedly dismissed anthropocentrism and teleology.

As well as many species and countless genera, the names of many higher taxa are also attributable to Latreille, including Thysanura, Siphonaptera, Ostracoda, Stomatopoda, Xiphosura, and Myriapoda.

Typification Although Latreille named many species, his primary interest was in describing genera. He introduced the concept of the "type species", a species to which the name of a genus is firmly attached. Similarly, he favoured the method of naming families after one of the constituent genera, rather than some defining feature of the group, implicitly designating a type genus for the family.